Children’s Literature in Education would like to announce some important changes: David Rudd is stepping down as co-Chief Editor of the UK and rest of the world branch of the journal, with Cathy Butler moving into that role. At the same time, we are delighted to welcome Rhonda Brock-Servais and Clémentine Beauvais as members of the editorial team.

To mark the important contributions David has made to the journal’s success we offer a brief account of his editorial journey.

We like to think that David’s first appearance on the children’s literature scene was in 1995 at the conference to celebrate CLE’s 25th birthday held in Exeter, England (although, admittedly, in 1992 the British papers were already exclaiming of David’s thesis on Enid Blyton: ‘Noddy gets a PhD!’). David was persuaded to become an editor by June 2003, for an issue where we commissioned ten articles to commemorate the closing of another excellent journal for children’s literature, Signal. At that time, five UK editors met regularly at Geoff Fox’s cottage in Devonshire to review, debate, and enjoy submitted articles face-to-face. By 2008 David was co-Chief Editor with Victoria de Rijke in the UK, with Larry Sipe as North American partner. After Larry’s tragically early death in 2011, David worked closely with former North American editor Margaret Mackey who kindly returned to ensure continuity for the journal. CLE was then fortunate to secure Annette Wannamaker as Editor-in-Chief for North American, so on both sides of the Atlantic CLE’s working relationship remains as strong as ever.

David may admit to being something of a workaholic (possibly a necessity for a CLE editor) and has brought great tenacity, patience, and rigour for detail as the journal metamorphosed and migrated to online systems. His was always the human face, however, attaching a kindly note to each author at the bottom of the auto-reply: ‘David here, not a machine.’ Much of what an editor does is invisible, but feedback from contributors has repeatedly told us that David’s personal mentorship was deeply appreciated. The danger is, the more you edit a journal, the less time you have to write articles and books yourself, yet David managed a highly successful career as a prolific scholar and professor, first at Bolton University, and then as Professor of Children’s Literature and Director of the National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature at the University of Roehampton, from which he retired in 2016. Critical of the strictures and limits that an increasingly league-table, research-ranking culture have placed upon academics and writers, David has always championed librarianship, engagement with reading, and collegiality over institutional ambition. No-one becomes rich from journal editing, but, as David has said himself, ‘the journey should be its own reward’. As J.R.R. Tolkien observed, ‘not all who wander are lost’, and working with CLE is a special kind of wandering.

Thankfully, David continues on the road with CLE for a while longer as part of the editorial team with Vanessa Joosen from the University of Antwerp and our new members Clémentine Beauvais, from the University of York, and Rhonda Brock-Servais, from Longwood University in Virginia. Clémentine is an author of fiction as well as an academic writer with playful and philosophical interests in children’s literature. She describes herself as ‘firmly interdisciplinary’; perhaps a quality CLE values above all others. Rhonda is a professor of English and researches and teaches courses on the history and criticism of children’s literature, fairy tales, and elements of horror and the gothic in children’s books. Our new co-Chief Editor Catherine Butler has published six novels for children and young people. She is based at Cardiff University, where her research expertise crosses fantasy and historical fiction, and the relationship of the academy to creative authors and lay readers.

Our huge gratitude and thanks go out to David, Catherine, Rhonda, and Clémentine for their contributions past, present, and future, working tirelessly to uphold the journal’s internationally renowned reputation. To quote David, echoing Tolkien again, ‘The road goes ever on!’